There’s people crowding around the door to her lecture theatre and Wendy is surprised. Music theory isn’t a particularly popular class and the fullest she’d ever seen the room was during first week, when a grand total of about forty students had shown up. It’s week six now and attendance has definitely dwindled.

There’s really no reason for so many people to be here. Who shows up to an eight o’clock lecture for fun? Maybe there’s some minor pop star that’s coming in today for a demonstration?

It doesn’t matter to Wendy. She’s on a high today. She submitted an assignment yesterday. She’d submitted it 48 hours early. It’s over, it’s done, there’s no need to worry. Wendy carefully manoeuvres herself through the crowd, trying not to jostle her iced coffee. Assignment submitted early and ten minutes early with Starbucks? The university student dream.

There’s no minor pop stars inside the lecture theatre, just Wendy’s usual bleary-eyed classmates. Everybody’s eyes turn her way when she steps inside. She nods at the girl with the oboe, waves at guitar guy and then heads up to her usual spot in the back row.

It’s far enough from the front that the lecturer never asks her questions and if she ever gets tired, she can shift one seat to the left and lean against the wall. She claimed it in the first week, glaring at anybody that tried to sit close to her. As a result, even now there’s a circle of empty seats around her. She didn’t want to be mean, but it’s an eight a.m. lecture twice a week and she does not want to interact with another human being.

She slouches into her seat and closes her eyes. Basking in the quietness of the room. The door opens again and this time it stays open, letting in an incredible amount of noise.

Seungwan peeks at the doorway through a slightly open eye and immediately groans. Bae Joohyun has just walked into her classroom. And following behind is her entourage of fans. She didn’t even know that the girl was in her class.

There’s always rumours about the stunning girl swirling around campus. Wendy doesn’t bother thinking into any of them. It’s always the same: Bae Joohyun is dating someone new, Bae Joohyun models in her free time, Bae Joohyun is the heiress of some multi-billion dollar corporation. Bae Joohyun this, Bae Joohyun that. Bae Joohyun, Bae Joohyun, Bae Joohyun. She is sick and tired of hearing about her.

You’d think university students would have better things to do with their lives. But apparently at Wendy’s university, after economics, business, and music, the most popular subject is Bae Joohyun. And Wendy gets that, she really does. That girl is stunning, and she knows it. Her legion of fans worshipping the ground she walks on has made that clear.

Bae Joohyun scans the seats. Her eyes meet Wendy’s and Wendy panics. There are so many vacant seats, there’s no way she’ll walk right up to the back and sit next to her right? She stuffs the straw of the iced coffee into and takes a nice relaxing sip. She stills when a shadow falls over her. There is no way she is this unlucky. Wendy swallows her coffee and looks up.

Bae Joohyun is standing in front of her in all her glory. There’s a moment of drawn out awkward silence before she realises she should probably say something. She should play it cool.

“Wassup?” Oh god. Wendy hopes she doesn’t look as mortified as she feels. She has no idea where all her chill went. Bae Joohyun isn’t even her type.

“Is this seat free?” Bae Joohyun points to the seat between Wendy and the wall.

A delightful shiver runs up her spine. Oh my. She’s heard things about Bae Joohyun’s looks, because well, who hasn’t? But her voice. Oh god. Wendy wants to distill it down to it’s purest form, mass produce it and drown in it. It is one of the most alluring voices she has ever heard, almost as good at the one that belongs to the silver-haired senior that frequents the music rooms.

“Yes.” Wendy thinks that the world is unfair. Girls that look like Bae Joohyun should not have voices like that. How on earth does anyone deny them anything? She wants to sit alone, but her voice is perfect, low with just a slight hint of huskiness. She sighs and resigns herself to company.

“Great. Do you mind letting me in?”

Wendy grabs her bag and awkwardly hugs it to her body, making room for Bae Joohyun to squeeze past and take the seat next to her. Wendy shuffles her books around while her new seatmate adjusts herself.

That’s when she notices the dead silence. She scans the room and finds every pair of eyes on her. Most are benign, but Bae Joohyun’s fans seem to be trying to drill a hole through her head through sheer willpower alone. Wendy swallows heavily and tries to act natural. It’s best to just ignore Bae Joohyun and hope for the best. She wants to live. And that means spending as little time with Bae Joohyun as possible.

“Hey.” Bae Joohyun smiles brightly at her. It lights up the room. Because of course it does.

Well. Wendy is screwed.

“Hey.”

“I’m Bae Joohyun.” She holds out a perfectly manicured hand.

“Hello, Joohyun-ssi, I’m Son Wendy.” Wendy shakes her hand, ignore the fact that it fits perfectly in hers. Not today, Bae Joohyun. She’s not going to fall head over heels. She isn’t. She’s going to endure today’s lecture and hide herself in the lower rows for the rest of the year. No more Bae Joohyun.

“Attention everybody!” Turns out her lecturer has arrived. She’s in her usual sky-high heels and leather pants and Wendy thinks she’s as intimidating as she is attractive. It’s definitely reflected in her attendance rates.

“Today I’m going to be announcing your project partners! This is worth half your mark, so pray that you get a good one and remember to start early!”

Fear, cold and sharp, settles into Seungwan’s stomach. What are the chances? There’s roughly forty students in the class, so it’s pretty unlikely she’ll end up partnered with Bae Joohyun. She’ll probably go crazy if she was.

“Kim Taeyeon and Jung Jessica.” Her favourite senior and the girl with the colour coded notebooks.

“Kim Yerim and Park Sooyoung.” Someone tall and someone small that she doesn’t remember seeing before.

“Kim Minseok and Moon Byulyi.” She can’t tell if they’re dating or related. Wendy hopes she doesn't find out. Though they both seem to be staring very intently at Professor Kim.

“Kim Hyoyeon and Kim Heechul.” Were there always this many Kims in her class? Do Kims have a genetic predisposition towards music? Were they all somehow related to Professor Kim?

“Bae Joohyun…” The lecturer stops for a minute and Wendy swear that the room goes silent with anticipation. “And Son Wendy.”

Oh dear god. She is so screwed.

“Looks like we’ll be seeing a lot of each other, Wendy.”

Bae Joohyun is smiling at her again. Wendy puts her face in her hands and tries not to scream.